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No, his decision was final. I was in the room when he announced he would drop out and he made that quite clear.

That's too bad. I know absolutely nothing about the Toronto mayor thing other than it's Ford v.s non-Ford. Say, if Ford drops out and a big chunk of the electorate has to choose between the other candidates, who do you think has the best chance in winning? Kinda big question, just wondering and you are probably the closest source to Toronto I have lol

That's too bad. I know absolutely nothing about the Toronto mayor thing other than it's Ford v.s non-Ford. Say, if Ford drops out and a big chunk of the electorate has to choose between the other candidates, who do you think has the best chance in winning? Kinda big question, just wondering and you are probably the closest source to Toronto I have lol

This is to be seen but as I said before, Doug doesn't have the likability or charisma that his brother has... you know when it comes to "the people" and returning phone calls or whatever he says he does. Personally I don't think he stands much of a chance. Then again no one thought Rob stood a chance last election.

Rob's nephew Mikey has withdrawn his nomination for Ward 2 councillor so that Rob can still run for his old seat on council. It's a desperate, cynical move. I'm excited to not have this awful man as our Mayor after Oct. 27, but we're not rid of him just yet.

We are locked into this deal now for the next THIRTY-ONE YEARS. Never mind that it's still being challenged in court by our First Nations leaders; now that it's ratified China owns our asses. Forget due process, forget democracy. Think anyone will even care enough to vote out the Harper Conservatives?

The FIPA treaty with China is pretty bad indeed. Problem is that a majority of votes are low-informed voters and are probably unaware of what's going on with this because it doesn't affect their day-to-day routine.

Given his general physical condition (drugs, alcohol), I don't know how much of a fight he can put up.
Best of luck to him and his family.

Either he lives or hes doesn't. Either way, this right wing populist attitude seems to be growing in Canadian politics.

With the NDP trying to bring out the 15$ an hour for a federal minimum wage, I hope that brings more people to the social democratic side of politics. So what, I lean to the left, to the point of falling over to my left side. People in B.C, and I assume the rest of Canada, deserve more than what's provided. Canadian social services have fallen way behind what would be American or another nation. I want to go full Nordic.

Either he lives or hes doesn't. Either way, this right wing populist attitude seems to be growing in Canadian politics.

With the NDP trying to bring out the 15$ an hour for a federal minimum wage, I hope that brings more people to the social democratic side of politics. So what, I lean to the left, to the point of falling over to my left side. People in B.C, and I assume the rest of Canada, deserve more than what's provided. Canadian social services have fallen way behind what would be American or another nation. I want to go full Nordic.

It's all part of the Torries strategy.
- Cut in every social programs on the federal to a point where services are lacking everywhere.
- Announce a budget surplus
- Run you next elections on lowering taxes for the middle class

As far as I am concerned, it's not how you should run a country but that's just me. I've always been leaning left from the center.

There's a difference between being fiscally responsible and butchering services provided by the government to achieve same goal. Budget surplus can be obtained by increasing revenues and cutting expenses. You can balance both nicely.
Just take the cuts made in CBC/Radio-Canada which led to over 650 people losing their jobs. In fact, the Torries have butchered CBC/Radio-Canada to a point where some are questioning it's existence in the near future.
Like I said, it's too easy to cut everything and then promise a tax cut just before the elections.

To be fair, the CBC was becoming increasingly irrelevant in many departments. I would mourn completely losing it, particularly the excellent radio news and current events programming, but now that Sportsnet owns broadcast rights to NHL hockey, they are struggling to find other ways of staying on peoples' radar.

Far worse, under the banner of "butchering services" that are actually prudent to keep, is this government's treatment of environmental research programs, especially the abhorrent practice of muzzling government-funded scientists from speaking to the media about their work.

Far worse, under the banner of "butchering services" that are actually prudent to keep, is this government's treatment of environmental research programs, especially the abhorrent practice of muzzling government-funded scientists from speaking to the media about their work.

Downtown Toronto as a ward bloc will vote for Olivia Chow as Mayor on Oct. 27, that is my "gee I wonder how'd he figure that out" prediction. Unfortunately, I have no idea if their votes count for anything against the polling numbers still making headlines in Ford-landia (when I last heard, Chow's numbers had tanked in Scarborough, whereas Ford Nation is relatively unswayed by Tory's capable glad-handing), but I'm calling it on her behalf for the most "downtown" of us, in terms of Ward locations pretty much everywhere from below St. Clair West village -- which is not a Disaster, but a little city in itself, just needing a little help with its growing pains into some possible future upgrades with the nearby new Crosstown LRT line creating development.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that although it may look all Olivia Red on the map downtown after election day, it's still Ford Blue out the 'burbs and they have the numbers to beat us. So, Ford More Years? Or maybe Doug Ford'll behave well and poll high enough to split the support of Tory, who's currently leading, maybe even enough to sink them both below Olivia (who can't sink much lower before actually bleeding out diehards into the Tory camp). So this will be a nailbiter.

A slightly less worrying race, but one no less interesting, is shaping up against TDSB trustee Sheila Ward. Her embarrassing discretionary spending antics spilled all over the headlines last week and she never responded to my e-mail about that $2,000 the Toronto Star reported she spent on her assistant's training program for website-building tools that are supposedly open-sourced. Public schools are being squeezed out of the downtown core because of this loony bin that is the education file. The various education boards are the third-biggest item (second to the transit and police files) that the city's voters supposedly control. Yet you can't raise kids down here anymore, unless you're rich, because the public schools are in rotting, collapsing buildings sitting atop very valuable public land. Chris Moise, endorsed by Kristin Wong-Tam for an area encompassing both her ward and my ward's councillor's, is running against the incumbant Ward. It's a huge bell-weather race, and I hope people wake up to it.

So we're officially at war. We're sending 6 CF-18 for 6 months (for now). No boots on the ground (for now).
Harper wouldn't tell the costs of the mission.
Thank god we can fill this huge military gap left by other nations with our high-tech top of the line CF-18.

I still think this isn't our war to fight but whatever. I guess we need to help cleanup other people's mess.
Never thought I'd say that but I miss Chrétien. Made the right decision back in 2003 not to get involved.